


Three Recovering Evil-aholics Walk into a Starbucks

by theheartofthekoko



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Hopeful Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Julia is an evil witch disguised as a disney princess, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Quentin lives because fuck you, alice is just an evil witch, eliot loves them anyway, post-monster Eliot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:35:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25982209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theheartofthekoko/pseuds/theheartofthekoko
Summary: Julia forms a club and drags Alice and Eliot along for the ride.Or: Eliot learns that healing is better with a little help from his friends.
Relationships: Alice Quinn & Eliot Waugh & Julia Wicker, Eliot Waugh & Julia Wicker, Quentin Coldwater/Eliot Waugh
Comments: 10
Kudos: 54





	Three Recovering Evil-aholics Walk into a Starbucks

Julia sat at the counter in Kady’s penthouse, feet tucked up on the bars of her stool. Beside her, Kady was focused on her phone with a steady concentration that meant something must have gone awry with her group of hedge witches. Julia was trying to focus on her own phone, but Candy Crush had lost its appeal days ago. Besides, what was playing out in front of her was shaping up to be the most depressing soap opera she’d seen in her life. Or a very tame lifetime movie, whichever. 

Over on the couch, Quentin tried to casually drape his arm over Eliot’s shoulders, only for Eliot to flinch back violently and slip onto the floor. Quentin jumped up to offer him a hand, but Eliot scrambled away from him like some sort of demented hermit crab, eyes wide and wounded in a way she’d never seen them before all of _this._ Quentin stopped in his tracks, hands raised in supplication, as if Eliot was a wounded animal instead of his kind of sort of boyfriend. 

“Are you okay?” Quentin asked quietly, eyes darting over to where she sat with Kady. Julia quickly looked back down to her phone, as if she hadn’t noticed any of that. Beside her, Kady looked like she really hadn’t.

“I’m fine,” Eliot snapped.

He immediately winced as Quentin’s eyes went big and sad. Julia thought back to the incident with Reynard when she’d almost got him killed and winced in sympathy. That look could devastate even the most soulless of people much less Eliot who was currently a stack of panicky neuroses held together by unnaturally pale skin and a stylish sweater. 

Quentin held his hand out again, palm open and unassuming. Eliot grimaced and grabbed his arm instead but let himself be heaved to his feet and deposited gently back onto the couch within easy reach of his cane. Quentin tucked a blanket around him, smoothing it over his knees with care even as he purposefully avoided skin-to-skin contact. After asking if he needed anything a few more times, while Eliot practically snarled like a rabid animal, Quentin fled out of the room damn near in tears.

Julia felt sympathy for him, she truly did, but Eliot’s shoulders had slumped so far into themselves he barely resembled a man anymore, and he looked entirely defeated as he pressed a shaking hand over his eyes. 

These instances were starting to stack up at an alarming rate. There was yesterday when Kady had handed him a glass of water and their fingers brushed. He’d dropped the glass in a violent flinch, and then reared back as it shattered at his feet. Kady had cursed, not even noticing the way Eliot’s back had gone ramrod straight. Or the day before when Margo had shouted at some television show, enraged at the characters mindless decisions, making Eliot freeze for a solid ten minutes before he grabbed his cane and fled into his commandeered bedroom, ignoring the questions Margo shouted at his retreating back. 

And this was just what Julia had been there for. There had to have been countless little tics she hadn’t seen. She looked back over at Eliot. He’d lowered both hands to his lap. They still shook, but his eyes looked vacant and dead. Something had to be done, and clearly whatever Margo and Quentin had been trying wasn’t working, so it was up to her. She got up from her seat to find paper and pen. There was a diabolical plot to enact after all. Julia couldn’t help the grin that spread over her face

***

Eliot woke up to Quentin shaking his shoulder gently. He rubbed his perpetually shaky hand across his face and tried to ignore the dampness he found there. He pulled the neck of his shirt up, scrubbed his face dry, and shoved down the twinge at stretching out one of his favorite sweaters. There were more important things, like whatever was left of his dignity.

Quentin, bless him, just shifted back and forth on his feet before muttering, “Your, uh neck, it just looked sort of uncomfortable,” before grimacing at the lame excuse and continuing, “I didn’t want you to get a crick.” He nodded firmly, as if that would somehow make the lie less blatant, before sitting on the vacant spot on the couch near his feet. 

Eliot tried to smile over at him, but Quentin was looking down at his knees dejectedly, so he just sighed and slumped back into the couch. His cheek came down onto its arm and the dry rasp of paper registered right before the crunch of it crumpling. He bolted up in surprise and stared down at where his head had just been in consternation. Maybe he was hallucinating. But a glance over at Quentin’s surprised gaze waylaid that fear.

Eliot picked up what looked like a slightly crushed origami crane made out of yellow notepad paper. Its neck was now bent three different directions. Eliot smoothed it into shape with idle fingers. That’s when he noticed the writing scrawled across its belly. With another furtive glance toward Quentin, he unfolded the crane with careful movements until he was looking down at Julia’s familiar scrawl. _Meet me at 6 p.m. Destroy all evidence that we’ve been in contact. And come alone_ — _you’ve been warned._ Beneath that was an unfamiliar address. 

Eliot looked down at it in utter confusion. What the fuck was she up to? And should he be concerned? With his luck, he’d show up at the address only to find himself fighting a dragon or killing a gnome. 

“What’s that?” Quentin asked, leaning toward him as if to read over his shoulder.

Eliot had no explanation for what happened next: his eyes widened, the fingers on his free hand snapped, and the note turned into many ashen cinders at their feet as he said “nothing!” in the most unconvincing tone he’d ever used. It was an automatic reaction fueled by panic and not much else. Quentin stared down at the ashes. Eliot stared down at the ashes. Neither said a word.

“I need to use the bathroom,” Eliot said. 

He grabbed his cane, snatched his phone off the coffee table and fled.

***

“Alice!”

She sighed but didn’t turn around as she pulled another book off the shelves in the Brakebills’ library. She flipped it open to the Table of Contents, finger trailing along the page as she skimmed it for things it didn’t seem to contain. She slammed it closed and shoved it back into its place just as Julia caught up to her, slightly out of breath as she beamed.

“Alice!” she said again, sounding downright delighted to be standing next to her in the library as the students studying around them glared over at the intrusion. “Eliot needs our help.”

Without further prompting, Julia wound her fingers around Alice’s wrist and tugged her toward the exit. Alice planted her heels and leaned back. She skidded along for a few seconds under Julia’s surprising strength before she finally turned around looking annoyed at the delay, as if it was somehow _Alice_ who was being unreasonably cryptic. 

“What are you talking about?” Alice demanded.

“He’s all sad,” Julia said, eyes wide and heartbreaking in a way that reminded her of Quentin’s puppy dog eyes. It was a devastating tactic, and she couldn’t help but wonder which one had picked it up from the other. “And Quentin and Margo are just making it worse, so it’s up to us now!”

Alice was pretty sure she was having a stroke. Why else would someone come to her— _her_ —to help, what, fix someone’s emotional problems? Besides, Eliot had seemed fine last time she’d seen him. A little jumpy, maybe, but much less murderous. What more did they want?

“No,” Alice said, voice firm. 

“Please?” Julia asked—her voice cracked and her eyes damn near shone with what looked like tears. “He doesn’t have anyone else.

Alice wavered under the onslaught of Julia Wicker in all of her Disney Princess glory damn near begging for help. But, no. This wasn’t her problem.

“No.”

Julia’s facial expression turned flinty and conniving so fast that Alice was starting to doubt the Disney part of her Disney Princess moniker. 

“I’ll buy you the biggest Frappuccino,” Julia said. 

“N—” Alice started, then stalled. It had been a long, fruitless day. She deserved some caffeine and sugar, didn’t she? 

“Please?” Julia asked again, eyes wide and glistening once more.

“Fine,” Alice sighed.

Julia gave a little skip in place and dragged her away by the fingers still curled around her wrist. Alice tried not to smile at her antics but didn’t really succeed. Oh, well. She was behind Julia anyway so it’s not like she’d even know. 

***

Eliot got out of his Uber and looked up at the building the driver had dropped him off at in trepidation. It was a generic looking Starbucks. Eliot stared down at his phone where he’d transferred the address and then back up at the matching number on the building. Instead of relaxing at the nonthreatening location, Eliot felt his spine stiffen at all the possibilities. Was the barista evil? Was this an intervention? Did Julia need a wingman? Well, that wouldn’t be so bad, but at a _Starbucks?_

Eliot took a deep breath and stumbled toward the door, hand clenched so tightly around his cane that his knuckles had turned white. The door brightly chimed its threat as it shut behind him, caging him into the dark coffeeshop. He looked up at the normal looking barista, then eyed the rest of the patrons in mounting apprehension before his gaze settled on Julia and Alice taking up a corner table. Julia was beaming brightly across at Alice, leaning forward to get closer to the other girl, coffee cup abandoned at her elbow. Across from her, Alice looked bored besides the small quirk of her lips around the straw of the half-drunk Frappuccino monstrosity she was steadily working her way through. 

Eliot resisted the urge to flee when Julia looked up toward him, smile widening as she called him over with an exuberant wave. Eliot reluctantly settled down across from her, leaning his cane against Alice’s chair as he valiantly ignored her pointed glare and took a sip from the mug Julia had placed in front of him. Hmm, cappuccino. At least Julia had some taste.

“So, what exactly is happening here?” Eliot asked. 

Alice scoffed and leaned further back in her chair, looking like a queen on her throne. Eliot remembered when he used to be cool like that. He hunched further over his cappuccino so as not to spill it down his sweater with his perpetually shaking fingers.

“This—” Julia started with an expansive gesture of her arm encapsulating the entirety of the table, “—is the first meeting of Evil-aholics Anonymous.” 

Alice snorted around her straw but didn’t put her drink down. Eliot’s hand shook even more violently than before. His cappuccino spilled all over the table. He placed it down gingerly as Julia jumped up to grab some napkins to wipe it up.

“The what?” Eliot asked, sputtering.

“Evil-aholics Anonymous!” she said brightly. “Well, Recovering Evil-aholics Anonymous.”

That cleared almost nothing up. Eliot tried to grasp at his thoughts, trying desperately to think of something to say, but found nothing. The longer the silence went on, the more Julia’s smile started to droop. God, she looked so sad. Eliot felt like a monster.

“But, we’re not anonymous,” he said desperately.

“Oh,” Julia said, brow furrowed. “Well, that’s okay though, right? Just Recovering Evil-Aholics then?”

Silence descended again. Alice didn’t seem to mind, but Eliot could feel his hands shaking and his flight or fight response kicking in. He continued drinking his cappuccino for something to focus on, but it soon ran out. When he looked back up, Julia was biting her lip and glancing between the two of them repeatedly, and Alice was glaring down at her now empty drink. Eliot decided that enough was enough.

“Well, this has been fun,” he said, planting his palms on his thighs and levering himself up before reaching out to grab his cane. “Let’s not do it again, okay?”

Before he could turn to leave, Julia vaulted up from her chair with a call of “Wait!”

Eliot looked over at her and found himself looking down at big, round eyes. They looked watery, as if she was about to cry. Eliot wasn’t strong enough for this, goddamnit.

“He’s right,” Alice said. “This is stupid.”

If anything, Julia’s eyes looked even bigger and wider. Eliot wasn’t sure how that was even possible. “Please?” she asked, voice shaky and sad. 

Eliot glanced down at Alice to find her similarly affected by the show, with bowed shoulders and a grimace on her face. Eliot sat back down with a sigh.

“Great!” Julia said. “I’ll go get us scones!”

Eliot watched her go, before turning back to Alice with raised eyebrows.

“What the fuck is happening?” he asked in a whisper.

“Fuck if I know,” Alice said. “She guilt tripped me into coming with her whole doe-eyed thing and with a bribery Frappuccino”

“I just got a cryptic origami crane.”

Alice quirked one of her eyebrows at him, looking amused. She opened her mouth presumably to ask for details but was interrupted by Julia bounding back over to the table with three wax paper satchels full of chocolate scones. 

The scones were good, but Eliot couldn’t find it in himself to try and converse like a normal human being. Julia prattled on brightly about who knew what, while Alice occasionally made acerbic comments back that only seemed to encourage her to send heart eyes Alice’s way and become even more exuberant than before. 

Despite the occasionally strained silence, Eliot settled into his chair more firmly, feeling the tension drain away from him like it hadn’t for weeks, hell _months._ Neither of them looked at him like he’d break if they said the wrong thing or disappear if they weren’t paying attention. Alice didn’t seem to care if he was there at all. It was almost—freeing. So, he stayed in his seat and ate his scone and didn’t try to leave again. And when Julia said it was time to go, he and Alice followed her dutifully toward the Starbucks bathroom.

“Did you set this up yourself?” Alice asked, as they each climbed through the portal that appeared when she opened the door again.

Eliot stepped through hesitantly, repressing the voice in his head that couldn’t stop telling him that suddenly appearing doors could lead him back into his head, get him stuck, leave him vulnerable to—

They appeared in Kady’s penthouse, and Eliot sighed in relief as Alice steadied his arm when he stumbled over the threshold. She smiled over at him, and he smiled back. Julia swung the door wide, wincing as it banged into the wall loudly. Eliot followed her out, arm still held in the crook of Alice’s elbow, only to stumble to a stop at the sight of Quentin staring at him in horror.

Julia laughed brightly at Quentin’s face before bouncing up to him and swinging her arms around him. Eliot felt a laugh spring from his mouth, sudden and quiet. He jerked his shaking hand up to cover his mouth in surprise. Beside him, Alice was smirking over at where Julia was twirling Quentin around like a reluctant waltzing partner. 

“That was a really good scone,” Eliot muttered.

“It was alright,” Alice said.

***

Eliot had thought that had been it. One strange meeting with the girls and life had essentially gone back to normal. Well, normal for him, which mostly consisted of sleeping the day away, hiding from Quentin and Margo in the bathroom, and watching ridiculous soap operas. He hadn’t seen Alice in almost a week, and Julia spared him a few fleeting smiles in that time. It was fine. He was fine.

He slumped his head down on the counter in front of him., back twinging at the awkward angle. He should be enjoying his time away from his watchers, but instead his skin felt too loose for his bones, and his head was squirming unpleasantly at the all-encompassing quiet of the penthouse around him. Usually even when he was sleeping or hiding in the bathroom, Margo was yelling at the television, or Kady was yelling into her phone, or Quentin was pacing restlessly beside his bed. This wasn’t that. This was the kind of quiet that meant he was really, truly alone.

That explained why he perked up when the front door swung open, but it didn’t explain the thrill of almost excitement that he felt when he saw the origami crane balanced in Alice’s palm as she walked over to him. 

She was sucking on a lollipop—Eliot was starting to wonder if she had some sort of oral fixation. First the straw, and now this? When she pulled it out of her mouth with a solid pop, he saw that it was one of those caramel apple ones. Now he was just jealous. Alice held it daintily in one hand as she leaned menacingly into his space. He leaned back until his back twinged again. Then she smiled, which was somehow even more threatening than her staring. She put the lollipop back in her mouth and tapped his cheek condescendingly before putting the origami crane on his head and walking back out the door, never having uttered a single word.

He picked the crane up off his head and smiled down at the note, this time with just an address and a time in Alice’s handwriting. Eliot suspected it was another Starbucks. He incinerated the paper before grabbing his cane and leaving the penthouse. This way, there’d be no tail to shake. With a spring in his unsteady steps and a smile on his face, he stumbled out into the world. 

***

Alice sucked on the straw of her Frappuccino which had long since dwindled to the dregs of whip cream. Beside her, Eliot was doing the same with his strawberry spritzer. Julia had gotten hot chocolate despite the heat of the day. Alice was thinking about stealing it now that it’d grown cold sitting at the girl's elbow as she talked enthusiastically.

“—you think, Alice?” Julia asked.

“Sure,” Alice said, despite having no clue what she’d been talking about.

“Great!” Julia said with a bright clap of her hands.

Alice glanced over at Eliot with a raised eyebrow. His eyes shifted toward her, and he immediately bit his straw hard enough to crack it, and scrunched his eyes closed as he took a couple quick, shuddering breaths. Alice was pretty sure he was trying not to laugh and felt inordinately pleased with herself. She smirked over at him before settling her eyes back on Julia who was still talking. 

“—get how hard it is to come back from something like that,” Julia was saying, looking earnestly between the pair of them. “You both know I’ve done some things.”

“I was dead for that, remember?” Alice pointed out, leaving out the part where she had stuck around Shadeless Julia like a particularly persistent undead fly.

“Oh, right,” Julia said with a crease between her brows. She tapped her lip in thought before continuing. “Well, there was that time I killed all those trees.”

Alice raised her brow at Eliot. She didn’t think she’d heard that one before.

“They were sentient,” he explained.

“Yeah,” Julia said. “Or that time I almost killed the senator because it just seemed so much easier, you know?”

Alice nodded. Murder was often the easiest way to get what you wanted.

“Or that time when I used Quentin as bait.”

She bit her lip, clearly feeling particularly bad about that one. Alice could sympathize. She occasionally still got a small twinge when she thought about that time she’d taken over Quentin’s body and wreaked havoc on his life. She was pretty sure it was guilt.

“But you were there for that one.”

Alice nodded in affirmation. Eliot looked surprised at that.

“You were?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said. “I’m the one that got Julia to break him out of jail.”

Eliot looked between the two of them looking faintly horrified. 

“Wow,” he said. “I’m glad I wasn’t around for the scary soulless women team up.”

“I mean,” Julia started, her eyes twinkling innocently in her patented Fairy Princess Impersonation once more. “You are now, right?”

Eliot looked ready to bolt at that. He scooted back in his chair, as if one of them might leap across the table to eat him. Julia grimaced when she noticed and headed back up to the counter with a mutter of buying more scones.

“Bribery scones,” Alice whispered to Eliot with a conspiratorial grin.

This time, Eliot really did laugh. Alice smiled and stole Julia’s tepid hot chocolate and downed it in a couple gulps. 

***

The next time it happened, Eliot was sitting on the couch next to Quentin and actually attempting to hold a conversation with him. It’s stilted, but he’s trying, and Quentin isn’t making it easy with the sad little looks of concern he kept sending Eliot’s way. He almost melted into the couch in relief when the door creaked open.

Alice poked her head in, did a surveillance of the room, and then propped the door open wider. At her feet, Julia barrel rolled into the room and sprung up before dashing to hide behind a stool that did nearly nothing to obscure her from their view. Beside him, Quentin was smiling over at the girl fondly. Eliot’s fairly sure this was a familiar sight during their childhood days. Julia seemed the right level of dramatic to pull off this bit on a regular basis. 

“Is the coast clear?” Julia stage whispered in Alice’s direction.

Alice’s top half disappeared back out the door only to reappear a few seconds later with a finger gun in Julia’s direction, little click of her mouth and all. And to think that Eliot used to think that girl was straight. Julia laid down on the ground and started rolling lengthwise toward the couch until she bumped into Eliot and Quentin’s feet and came to a forced stop. Then she patted her pockets as if looking for something and swore.

“Shit,” she said, sitting up and turning to look back toward the door. “Alice, do you have the crane?”

Alice smiled fondly down at her and threw the origami crane. It flapped its wings as it flew over to them before settling down on Eliot’s knee.

“Just like that one scene in Harry Potter!” Quentin said bemusedly.

Eliot snorted. God, Quentin was such a nerd. He smiled over at him, and Quentin startled as if shocked. Had it really gotten so bad that he was surprised when Eliot smiled at him? Well, nothing to do about it now. 

He unfolded the crane and memorized the date and time. This time he pressed the crane flat and pushed it into his pocket beside his phone as Julia sprinted from the room like the hounds of hell were at her heels. Alice smiled menacingly over at them before closing the door firmly behind the both of them and leaving the penthouse in an awkward silence.

“What was that?” Quentin asked hesitantly.

“Nothing!” Eliot blurted out. “Just an inside joke!”

Quentin gave him a strange look but didn’t press. The silence somehow became even more uncomfortable. 

“I’m going to go take a nap!” Eliot said and fled to the bedroom. God, he used to be so suave. Didn’t he? What had happened? He closed the door behind him, dropped his cane beside the bed, and crawled in to wait for the designated time away from prying eyes and awkward silences he didn’t know how to break. 

***

Quentin followed Eliot out the front door at a safe distance. He wasn’t _stalking_ Eliot per se, it was just that he’d read that note, and all it’d had on it was some suspicious address and a time that was just around now. Can you blame him for being worried? Alice didn’t exactly have the best track record for good, healthy coping mechanisms. And well, it was Julia. She always meant well, but some of her plans were just, well. 

So, yes. He was worried about all three of them, but most especially Eliot, who was making progress at such a slow pace, and who almost never smiled anymore, much less laughed. But, he _had._ He’d laughed when Alice had done her patented finger gun thing, and then again when Julia rolled right on top of their feet. Quentin couldn’t remember the last time he’d heard Eliot laugh, and he wanted to make sure whatever this was wasn’t going to blow up in all of their faces later on before he let the elation of Eliot’s happiness overwhelm him. 

So, When Eliot had gone out the front door with a half-assed explanation of getting some air, Quentin had grabbed a baseball cap off the table, pushed it low over his eyes, and shuffled behind him at a safe distance. Okay, yeah maybe he was stalking Eliot, but it was all for the greater good so it really shouldn’t count!

Eliot glanced behind him and Quentin ducked behind a newspaper rack until he turned back around. He fished a newspaper out of the rack and pulled it to cover almost the entirety of his face. He wasn’t too bad at this, a thrilled little voice in the back of his head pointed out. Maybe he’d missed his calling as an international spy.

***

Julia looked up from her conversation with Alice, a smile ready on her face to greet Eliot. It grew even bigger when she saw him: Quentin Coldwater skulked into the door behind Eliot, a red baseball cap she last saw Josh wearing backwards like a douchey frat bro tilted suspiciously low on his head, and a newspaper covering everything else visible besides his eyes. She glanced over at Eliot with raised eyebrows. He raised his right back with a wry tilt to his mouth and a little shrug to his shoulders as he settled down at their table.

“Couldn’t shake him, huh?” Alice asked.

“I’m not exactly walking on all cylinders,” Eliot pointed out, shaking his cane at her like a cranky old man.

“Who does he think he’s fooling?” Julia asked.

Eliot turned around in his chair, accidentally making eye contact with Quentin who had settled a few tables away. Quentin hurriedly picked his newspaper back up to cover his face. Eliot smiled fondly at the moron.

“Whatever,” Julia said with a roll of her eyes before standing up, clearly deciding to make a spectacle of the whole thing. “Welcome to the third official meeting of Recovering Evil-Aholics Anonymous!”

“What?” Quentin demanded, dropping the newspaper in his apparent shock before picking it up hurriedly and covering his face again.

“Oh, sweetie,” Alice said with a condescending click of her tongue. “We know you’re there.”

“And I was doing so well,” Quentin said, dropping the newspaper down to the table with a sigh. Julia traded an amused look with Eliot across from her.

“Go away, Q,” Julia said.

Quentin shot her his best puppy dog eyes, as if she wasn’t the one who’d taught him that move. She was the _master,_ and there was no way in hell she was going to get swayed by some inferior doe eyes, no matter how cute he looked. She pointed at the door firmly, forcing a disappointed frown on her face.

“This is for reformed evil people, which you are not.”

“What?” he demanded. “Eliot’s not evil! And neither are you.”

“I notice you didn’t say anything about _me,_ ’ Alice muttered around her straw.

Eliot laughed, shoving her a little in the shoulder playfully. “Admit it,” he said. “You’re still a little evil.”

“But, what about the beast,” Quentin asked, eyes wide and imploring. “I was a soulless killing machine in timeline twenty-three!”

“Please,” Julia responded with a roll of her eyes. “You never even met that guy, and it wasn’t you.”

“But it was—”

He was interrupted by the screech of Alice’s chair as she pushed it back to stand up. Quentin’s eyes widened with fear this time as she circled the table separating them, grabbed his cheek to lean his head to the side, and whispered in his ear too quietly for Julia to hear. By the way his face lost all color before he nodded mutely and left the coffee shop, it must have been a doozy. 

Julia put her chin in her hand and tried to keep her smile from becoming too besotted as she watched Alice settle daintily back into her seat.

“What did you say to him?” she asked.

Alice smiled her killer’s smile and went back to digging the dredges of whip cream out of her drink. Well, maybe Julia didn’t want to know.

***

Eliot’s got his arm wrapped around Alice’s waist as they walked down the sidewalk toward the closest Starbucks. Julia seemed to have thrown all caution to the wind—now that Quentin had figured out her scheme—so she’d shown up and dragged him and Alice off the couch where they’d been playing a half-assed game of push. Eliot had just waved at Quentin and let himself be kidnapped.

He wrapped his arm more firmly around Alice as he stumbled slightly over a crack in the sidewalk, mourning the loss of his cane that was still wedged between two cushions of the couch back at the penthouse. In front of them, Julia was somehow managing to weave effortlessly between pedestrians while walking backward and enthusiastically telling a story about the way Kady had eviscerated Pete for a stupid comment. 

“And then she grabbed his elbow and literally yanked him to the floor!” Julia exclaimed. “And then before he could even—hey!”

Julia broke off her tale, stopped suddenly on the sidewalk, and shoved between him and Alice, disentangling them. He stumbled, but before he could fall, Alice lunged back toward him and pulled him into an upright position

“What do you think you two are doing?” Julia demanded.

And, oh. There they were: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with Margo of course being Hyde.

“What, we can’t get coffee?” Quentin asked petulantly, lower lip jutted out in a way that Eliot unfortunately found endearing. Beside him, Margo just looked bored. 

“No, you can’t get coffee,” Julia said, punctuating her point with a jab at his chest and a whine to her voice. “And I thought Alice already scared you off.”

“As if you don’t know that our little old Q has the self-preservation instincts of a lemur,” Margo said with a condescending pat to his head. 

“Well, have better sense and take him home!” Julia said, voice commanding. 

“Can’t _I_ get coffee?” Margo asked, lips pouting. 

Julia looked her up and down as if considering it. Eliot bit his lip in an attempt not to laugh.

“She was born a little evil, don’t you think?” Eliot asked. “Shouldn’t prior conditions also count?”

Julia whirled to face him, hands on her hips and an uncharacteristically severe scowl on her face as she jabbed her finger in his direction instead.

“Body taken over by an evil monster who used it to murder people dead,” Julia said. Eliot tried valiantly to suppress a full body flinch but didn’t succeed. Alice reached down and twined her hand in his, almost like a real, compassionate person would do. Eliot gave her hand a squeeze in thanks for her little tromp through kindness. Julia swung her finger to point at Alice and continued, “Died and became a being of malevolent magic and came back with maybe a little too much evil still in her tiny body.” Then, she pointed at her own chest, “soulless hell-beast who tried to murder many people and succeeded in killing a shitload of sentient trees.” 

Quentin looked almost sick at the prospect, but Eliot felt like laughing. Spelled out like that, Margo’s tyrant ways looked like child’s play, and made Quentin’s entire being look like marshmallows and cotton candy.

“I don’t think Margo would fit the criteria of the Recovering Evil-Aholics, do you?” Julia asked, smiling beguilingly up at Eliot in her sugar sweet way that he was strongly starting to suspect was an act. 

With an explosive sigh, Margo attempted to drag Quentin away from the group and back toward the penthouse. He yanked his arm free with a pout and turned his sad eyes toward Eliot. For his part, Eliot tried not to wither under his unfocused gaze. 

“I’m just worried,” Quentin admitted, his eyes drifting back and forth between his and Julia’s as Margo waited impatiently behind him.

Julia softened. After a few quick steps, she took his hand in hers and squeezed it tightly, and with her heart in her eyes and all her love in her voice, she spoke: “I love you, but fuck off okay?” Quentin took a step back and tried to yank his hand away, but Julia was unrelenting with her grip. “I need this, okay? I need this time to talk about the things I’ve done and the bits of me that still don’t fit together right. That maybe never will. Okay?”

Quentin looked heartbroken, gaze settling on Eliot, as if asking for his support. Eliot looked down at the sidewalk and tried not to squeeze the life out of Alice’s fingers. 

“I think Eliot and Alice feel the same,” Julia said, quiet voice barely carrying over the sounds of New York filtering in all around them.

“I—okay,” he said, voice shuddering and ragged. “Okay.”

Eliot didn’t look up until Julia slung her arm around his waist. She smiled brightly at him, tears glistening in her eyes belaying the gravity she was trying to put in her actions.

“Shall we, Mister Waugh?” she asked.

Eliot looked over at Alice who was smiling softly up at him, and over at Julia who was holding back tears by sheer force of will, and made up his mind that he’d stand by these two in all the same ways he’d tried to for Margo over all these years.

“We shall.”

***

“I just don’t get why they don’t realize we’re just worried about them?” Quentin complained tipsily around the straw in his mai tai. Margo hmm’d noncommittally as she filled his thumb nail down to a nice, smooth edge. “Am I not allowed to worry about my friends?”

Margo didn’t bother to hold back her derisive snort over his choice of words. As if everyone didn’t know that by “them” he meant Eliot, and by “friend” he meant the love of his life. Instead of saying that, she put down his finished hand to peruse her nail polish collection. Picking up a periwinkle that would look perfect with his complexion 

“What do you think?” she asked, shaking the bottle in front of his eyes.

“Oh, pretty!” Quentin said, seemingly forgetting his drunken ire of moments before. “Are you going to put that on me?”

“No, I’m going to put it on the dog.”

Quentin looked over at were said dog was laying at their feet with a consternated frown. “I don’t know if Kady would like that,” he said, sounding genuinely worried like the absolutely useless nerd he was.

“What won’t I like?” Kady asked, walking into the penthouse on such silent feet that Quentin jumped violently. Margo smacked him on the head for smearing the nail polish she’d just started painting on but started the process over without complaint.

“Kady!” Quentin exclaimed brightly. “We’re going to form our own club. Do you want to join?”

Kady raised her eyebrows at Quentin, but when all he did was smile guilelessly up at her, Margo sighed and expounded: “People Who Care About People Who Were Once Evil-Anon—Eliot, Alice and Julia founded their own little evil club and poor little Q felt left out.”

“Quite a mouthful,” Kady said right over Quentin’s spluttering denials of the truth.

“Will you join?” Quentin asked, eyes hopeful and bright.

“I don’t love any of those assholes,” Kady scoffed.

Margo laughed as Quentin’s bottom lip jutted out and quivered. “But we need more than two members,” Quentin said, whining tipsily. Margo slapped his hand back down when he tried to gesture with the hand she was currently painting the nails of.

Kady looked between the two of them, eyebrows still quirked up incredulously. Margo smirked up at her but stayed focused on her task. “Will I get my nails painted?” she finally asked.

“I can do it!” Quentin said. He enthusiastically went on a spiel about Julia teaching him how when they were in middle school. Margo smiled as the dark cloud that had been surrounding her friend since the confrontation on the sidewalk lifted as he grabbed Kady’s hand and began painting her nails a nice maroon with surprising precision for a drunk moron. God, she loved the idiot.

***

Eliot let himself be dragged back into the penthouse by Julia and smiled at what they found there: Quentin was putting on a clear coat of polish on Margo’s nails, as her and Kady laughed into their mixed drinks. Quentin’s mouth was puckered the way it always did when he was concentrating. He and Julia stood in the doorway, smiling down at the scene together as Alice complained about the holdup from behind them.

“Eliot,” Margo said, smiling over at him. “Did you know our little Q could paint nails?”

Before he could respond, Quentin looked up from his work and smiled dopily up at him. Eliot felt his heart twinge in a not at all unpleasant way. And suddenly, he missed him. “I didn’t, no,” he said finally, before Quentin’s smile could fall. “Will you do mine?”

Quentin nodded so vigorously, it must have hurt his head. He shoved Margo unceremoniously out of the spot beside him, ignoring her complaints as she went to sit by Kady instead. Eliot was charmed. He let Julia lever him down into the vacated spot.

Quentin reached out gently to grasp his hand with barely any pressure. “Okay?” he asked, eyes damn near shining with his loving concern.

Eliot nodded and settled into the touch. It was nice, almost. Like the bits of him that had been scrambled had settled back into the right order, just for this instant, where Quentin was touching him. He closed his eyes and let himself enjoy the moment. It wouldn’t last—something would drag him back into the dark and he’d flinch, or yell, or run away. But for now, in this moment? It was nice.

***

Julia settled next to Kady, beckoning Alice over to her as the girl dithered, pretending not to want to join the group. She smiled when she settled on the arm of the sofa. Julia shoved her down until she was half-sprawled on all three of the girl’s laps. She struggled, finally slotting into place at Julia’s side, and spitting so much venom that even Kady looked startled. Julia didn’t mind—that was just how Alice showed her love. She put her head on the girl’s shoulder and smiled in victory when she wasn’t unceremoniously pushed away.

Looking around the room at all of her most important people, happy, and healthy, and _healing,_ Julia felt a rush of affection so deep, her heart was almost bursting from her chest. Eliot’s hand was cradled gently in Quentin’s as he concentrated on its nails with a contented curl to his lips. Her evil plan was coming along nicely.

“I know that look,” Alice said. “That’s your plotting evil face—what’re we doing?”

Julia looked up at her with an innocent smile. “Step one: health and happiness for everyone we care about.”

“And step two?” Alice asked.

“We take over the world!” 


End file.
